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The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse weather factors at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Reasons

Precipitation and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.

After scrubbing the launch, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as early as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.

Launch Goals

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if successful.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Landing Attempts

For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to land the booster stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.

The current administration has seen the government pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.

Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”

“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”